During the summer months, TV viewing significantly decreases as people prefer spending time outdoors, going on holidays, or taking day trips.

However, TV viewership spikes during summertime with major events, especially this year with the Euros, Olympic and Wimbledon tournaments.

And this brings my yearly warning.

The hot and humid summer weather will disrupt satellite TV viewing.

All electronic signals, including satellite TV, terrestrial TV, mobile phone, wireless internet, and Wi-Fi, are affected by heat and humidity during this season.

This disruption is especially noticeable in Spain and southern Europe, where UK TV satellite signals are already quite weak. Channels such as ITV HD, BBC HD, UKTV Group channels and some Discovery channels are particularly vulnerable.

In areas like Costa Blanca North and Valencia, satellite dishes for UK TV are already operating at the limit of their reception capabilities. Heat and humidity exacerbate the problem, causing signals to struggle more, leading to pixelation or complete loss of these weaker UK satellite TV channels, especially in mid to late afternoon. This allows signals on similar frequencies from neighboring satellites to overpower UK TV signals, resulting in pixelation or loss of channels.

And with the LNBs on the satellite dishes bearing the full force of the sun for 12 hours, they can over heat and thus drop in performance.

Humidity in the afternoon and early evening can also slow down wireless internet speeds, affecting TV and streaming services. Heat further complicates this, as electronic signals struggle to travel through hot air.

Misaligned or warped satellite dishes further exacerbate signal loss. With the satellite dishes in the sun all day, they can heat up and expand, but when they cool down they may not contract back into the optimum shape. And thus the defects may cause a drop in performance.

High air pressure can bend or reflect TV and radio waves, interfering with signals from transmitters. For terrestrial TV systems received via an aerial, like Freeview in the UK or TDT in Spain, this can cause co-channel interference, leading to scrambled signals and poor reception.

In contrast, autumn and winter bring cooler temperatures and clear skies, which help improve signal reception.

These are the weaker UK TV channels / regions in my area of Valencia and Costa Blanca that can be affected by the summer heat and humidity, for which you can expect drop out of these channels:

UKTV Group: Dave, Drama, Yesterday, Gold, Eden, W

BBC : BBC One South HD

ITV 1 HD : London, Meridian East, Central West

Channel 4 HD : South & East, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Midlands, North